Waste management is of critical importance to public health, human dignity, climate resilience, and environmental preservation in Africa. African countries have conventionally managed waste disposal in landfills, indiscriminate dumping, open burning, and recycling where they deem fit. However, Africa generates just about 16 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, which is only 6% of plastic waste generated globally, and the continent recycles only 4% of its total waste. Recycling organic waste offers more advantages for Africa as it is less capital-intensive than plastics, making it more accessible to most continents, and up to 57% of solid waste generated in Africa is organic.
The introduction of incentives for the establishment of local and regional recycling and recovery markets, as well as the implementation of effective waste management services, is critical to ensuring maximum benefit for the African continent. Reducing and phasing out open waste burning in African urban centers would have significant health and environmental benefits besides reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. The transformation needs to be systemic and include the informal waste recyclers who are already getting waste back into the African economy, as well as national governments, cities, and development partners.
Citations:
[1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-waste-recycling-africa-essential-world-dr-richard-munang-1f
[2] https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/84955
[3] https://raeng.org.uk/news/open-burning-of-waste-in-africa-challenges-and-opportunities
[4] https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/25515/Africa_WMO_Summary.pdf
[5] https://odi.org/en/publications/waste-management-in-africa-a-review-of-cities-experiences/
